Monthly Archives: August 2017

The Constitution allows a spoils system in the judiciary, as it empowers the president to nominate the head of such powerful bodies as the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court. This has always been a source of dispute over the political neutrality and independence of the judiciary.

The Moon Jae-in administration is no exception. Moons nominations of Kim Yi-su as the head of the Constitutional Court and Lee You-jung as a new justice of the top court are deadlocked at the National Assembly due to obstruction by opposition parties.

Then Moon chose Kim Meong-su, a liberal senior judge who now heads the district court in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, as the new chief justice. The nomination defied the expectations of many.

First of all, Kim overtook many of his seniors in the court. At 58, he is 11 years junior in age to outgoing Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae. There is a 13-year gap between their years of service. Nine of the current Supreme Court justices began their career before the nominee. No doubt, Moon sought a generational change in the top court.

If his nomination is confirmed by the National Assembly, Kim would break a 48-year-old tradition in which the chief justices post went to a former or incumbent justice of the Supreme Court. This certainly is in line with Moons efforts to break away from tradition and the old frame.

So the message is clear. Moon, who was elected with a pledge to reform each and every sector of Korean society, wants the nominee to overhaul the judiciary. To be fair, there is no reason to save the judiciary from reforms.

Generally, Koreans have a low level of confidence in the judiciary, as it has been embroiled in intermittent corruption scandals involving judges and judges-turned-lawyers, as well as political disputes. A recent poll found that only 27 percent of Koreans trust the judiciary, and an index on trust in judges put Korea at No. 39 among 42 nations that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Some recent controversies have also raised questions about the high-handed administration of the court. Yang, whose six-year term ends next month, had faced some judges demand to resign over the allegations that senior officials interfered with academic activities of a group of progressive judges and even blacklisted judges critical of the court administration and chief justice. In relation to this, a judge in Incheon is holding a hunger strike for more than 10 days.

All these recent developments should not be taken lightly and Kims nomination as the leader and the top administrator of the judiciary branch may well reawaken the nation to the need to reform the judiciary branch.

For all the need for reform, however, what should be guarded against is the possibility of the entire judicial branch of government being drawn too much to the left. Moons selection of Kim as chief justice should ring alarm bells in that regard.

Moon, who broke the consecutive rule of two conservative leaders, seems to have picked Kim mainly because of the judges progressive perspective. And it is easy to believe Moon and Kim will try to install as many progressives as possible in the Supreme Court, where 10 more justices will have been replaced by the time Moon steps down from office. Obviously, the top courts ideological balance, political neutrality and independence will be cast into doubt.

Article 103 of the Constitution stipulates that judges should follow the Constitution, law and regulations and their own conscience to declare judicial independence. Such independence is vital to protect the basic rights of citizens and ensure fairness, justice and rule of law in society.

The problem is past governments — of the left and right alike — have tried to interfere with the judicial independence in one way or another. The National Assembly should use Kims confirmation hearing to find out whether the nominee is committed to political neutrality and independence and how he will uphold duties imposed on the court by the Constitution.

Monterey >> As a new crew member of the Golden Rule Peace Boat and its educational crusade against nuclear weapons, Col. Ann Wright spent her first day aboard sailing out of Monterey Bay amidst a bevy of whales and dolphins.

Twenty miles south of Monterey, the retired United States Army Colonel and State Department official spotted a humpback whale 100 yards off the port side that was 60 feet long and breaching.

Wright, 71, joined fellow shipmate Helen Jaccard, who had begun the journey in the Pacific Northwest, and two other crewmates, Bullitt D. Bourbon and Wil Van Natta and spent the last three days in the Monterey Bay reaching out to anyone interested in the historic boat and its mission to preach the dangers of nuclear weapons and war.

The Golden Rule, a 30-foot ketch, was the first environmental action and peace vessel put to sea. In 1958, with a crew of four Quaker activists, it sailed from Los Angeles in an attempt to halt atmospheric nuclear weapon testing in the Western Pacific. While the boat never made it to its destination, with the crew members arrested in Hawaii, the voyage did ignite an international movement to stop the testing because of their determination to sail into a nuclear bomb test zone in the Marshall Islands.

In 2015, the historic boat was restored by the Veterans For Peace for a 10-year peace-making voyage across North America with the mission to promote a nuclear free world.

Im a great supporter of just a heroic effort to preserve a remarkable ship, said Wright.

Besides her outspoken views about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Wright was one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Theres the fear by us that some of our governments may use them for the destruction of the world, said Wright, noting the current frenzy surrounding nuclear weapons. So its a very opportune time for this boat to be on this educational voyage to alert people to their horrific danger.

Wright, who spent 29 years in the military and has been to North Korea on her own peace-making mission, noted the 122 countries that less than two months ago voted as part of a global treaty that nuclear weapons should be banned from the face of the earth. Participants did not include any of the worlds nine nuclear powers, including the United States.

For Wright, who also spoke at a gathering Monday night with about 30 people at the Monterey Peace and Justice Center, the sea life sightings on Tuesday were a bonus to what she described as a positive experience in Monterey. She currently lives in Hawaii.

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Monterey was a very generous port where the harbormaster encourages education boats to come in and we had a lot of visitors including international visitors, said Wright, noting the educational tours that were given on the Golden Rule.

We have to be concerned about the future of our world these nuclear weapons in particular still pose such a danger to us, said Wright. When nuclear nations decide theyre going to use them, theyre not just going to use one, but hundreds that will affect agriculture, food production, the atmosphere …

Now, the boat is headed to Morro Bay and then Santa Barbara, Ventura, Long Beach and San Diego, where it is ending its current trip. The ship will stop at ports along the way.

Following the journey down to Southern California, Wright said the vessels next trip will be next year when it travels through the inland waterway of the Gulf Coast and then up the East Coast. Then the ship will likely travel through the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi.

Eventually, Wright said the crew plans to sail the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and then up to the Marshall Islands where the United States tested nuclear weapons from 1946 to 1958 and where the Golden Rule attempted to sail in 1958.

Wright said the inhabitants there are still feeling the effects from those tests. She hopes the boats current mission can help prevent any future catastrophe.

It is something we need to acknowledge and face that these things are going to be the end of our earth and we as citizens have a responsibility to really hold our government accountable, said Wright. Theres a wonderful future for the Golden Rule as far as educating people about the danger of nuclear weapons.

Producers of the Trading Paint movie that stars John Travolta, Shania Twain and Tony Sebastian are scheduled to film a scene for the movie at a Hoover restaurant Friday, the owner of the restaurant said.

Nick Manakides, owner of the Golden Rule Bar-B-Q at 1571 Montgomery Highway, said the film crew for the movie is supposed to arrive about 7:30 or 8 a.m., followed by extras at 9:30 a.m. and actors at 10 a.m.

Theyre filming a scene in which a restaurant manager inappropriately touches the wife of a dirt track race car driver played by Sebastian, sparking a conflict, Manakides said.

Theres no word on what all cast members will be present for this scene, but about 80 cast and crew members are expected to be involved in filming the scene, Manakides said. About 16 of his employees are scheduled to be extras, he said.

He originally had hoped to play the restaurant manager until he learned what the scene was about and was told they needed someone with a different physique for the part, he said.

Manakides said theres only about two minutes of screen time scheduled for the shot and hes not sure how long filming will take.

He wasnt sure why they chose his restaurant, but the director of the movie, Karzan Kader, had been coming to eat there frequently for several weeks with the director of cinematography before they inquired about filming there.

Manakides said he thinks they didnt want a restaurant that looked too modern, and his restaurant looks exactly like it did when he opened in 1974. Another restaurant in Hueytown was considered, but his Golden Rule Bar-B-Q was smaller and more intimate than the restaurant in Hueytown, he said.

Manakides said the producers of the Woodlawn movie were supposed to shoot a scene at his restaurant when that movie was made but ended up going somewhere else because he was going to charge them a fee for shutting his restaurant down. This time, he decided to let the producers of Trading Paint have time at his restaurant for free, he said. Were doing it for the fun of it, he said.

The Trading Paint movie tells the story of how a veteran race car driver (Travolta) and his son, a fellow driver, (Sebastian), overcome family and professional conflicts and balance competition, ego, resentment and a racing nemesis to come out stronger on the other side, according to the International Movie Database website.

Much of the movie reportedly is being shot in the Birmingham area, particularly the Bessemer/Hueytown area, between mid-August and mid-September. The film is due out in theaters in June 2018, according to IMDB.

An image of, from left, Robert, Ted and John Kennedy, is shown at Ted Kennedy’s memorial service at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Aug. 28, 2009, in Boston.

On this day in 2009, Edward Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history he served as a Democratic senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009 succumbed to brain cancer at age 77.

Edward Moore Kennedy was born in Boston on Feb. 22, 1932, the youngest of nine children born to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the daughter of a Boston politician, and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a financier who served as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and later as President Franklin D. Roosevelts ambassador to Great Britain.

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After serving in the U.S. Army in the early 1950s, (he had been expelled by Harvard for having cheated on a Spanish exam), Harvard said he could return. Kennedy graduated in 1956 and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1959.

In November 1960, John Kennedy was elected as the nations 35th president. The following month, a Kennedy family friend was appointed to fill the president-elects vacated Senate seat until a special election could be held. In November 1962, Ted Kennedy, who earlier that year had turned 30, the minimum age requirement for a senator, won the right to serve the remainder of his brothers term. Massachusetts voters thereupon re-elected him eight times.

Senators are usually restricted to holding a seat on only one major committee. Yet, as Adam Clymer wrote in his 1999 biography Edward M. Kennedy, Kennedy was assigned to the Armed Services Committee without having to relinquish his seat on the Judiciary or Labor and Human Resources committees. There was some grumbling in Democratic ranks. Why, some asked, should the rules not apply to him?

Oh, came the reply, Clymer reported, Kennedy is Kennedy.

On July 18, 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Massachusetts Chappaquiddick Island, costing the life of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who drowned. Kennedy failed to report the incident to the authorities for nearly 10 hours, claiming the delay was because he had suffered a concussion and was exhausted from attempting to rescue Kopechne, who had worked in the Senate office of his assassinated brother, Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.).

He subsequently pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. Kennedy later referred to his actions as inexcusable, and said Kopechnes death haunts me every day of my life.

In 1980, Kennedy made a failed bid to deny President Jimmy Carter the Democratic nomination. He never again ran for the White House, instead focusing on wide-ranging legislative initiatives on Capitol Hill, where he was dubbed the liberal lion of the Senate.

During his long Senate career, Kennedy fought for legislation often with bipartisan support that spanned a wide range of issues, including education, immigration and health care reform.

SOURCE: EDWARD M. KENNEDY, A BIOGRAPHY, BY ADAM CLYMER (1999)

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There are plenty of people my lovely wife Cassandra rants against some of whom dont even live in our house. But the ones who get it worst are gun owners. Having grown up in a rural, gun-loving town, she finds the preppers and vigilantes to be self-heroizing macho bullies who, now that I type this sentence, I am worried shes secretly attracted to.

Still, it was surprising that the week Donald Trump won the election, an event you probably know about because he is still talking about it, Cassandra said she was thinking about getting a gun. She wanted to protect herself from the people who had guns to protect themselves from people who wanted to take their guns, such as her. She is preparing for a civil war that deconstructionist philosophers dream of.

Turns out lots of women feel this way. Several of Cassandras liberal friends have been talking about going to a gun range. Last February former National Guard member Marchelle Tigner started a gun course for women near Atlanta; since then shes been asked to teach more than 700 women in 11 other cities. Tigner suggested that I make the shooting experience as soothing as possible for Cassandra, spending a lot of time talking first. Some men get so excited about shooting that the patience goes out the window, she explained, because theyre so excited about the bang. I wasnt at all sure we were still talking about guns.

Cassandra asked me to take her to a shooting range for her birthday this year, so I called my friend Chris Cognac, who co-founded the international Coffee with a Cop program, for suggestions. Instead, Cognac invited us to the range at his station.

Cassandra put on a pair of sensible ankle booties and shiny black tights and banded her hair into a ponytail because there are no female-shooter role models outside of action movies. We arrived at the shockingly nice Hawthorne police station, not far from our house in Los Angeles, where Cognac and another officer took us downstairs to their huge shooting range. I asked if they were going to do a background check on us, but Cognac said it was unnecessary because he knew me. This seemed weird since he didnt know Cassandra, and they were giving a gun in the middle of a police station to a woman who wanted to learn to shoot because she opposed the current government. Meanwhile, I had to present a passport and drivers license, get fingerprinted and be interviewed just to be able to leave my shoes on at airport security.

Cassandra couldnt believe how many shells were on the floor of the range and found the Beretta 92FS way bigger than the gun of her dreams. I pictured a small handgun a pink one I could put in my purse, she said. After a few rounds, the officers offered her a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. The kickback freaked her out, and the officers got closer, giving firm instructions to point at the target and take your finger off the trigger after firing, during which she was yelling, Jesus! and Whoa!

I was worried, Cognac told me. I just hoped that she didnt drop it. Thats why we only gave her three bullets. She put the gun down and went to shake out her arms, which were shaking on their own. I thought Id get a rush of adrenaline and it would be fun, she said. But it was very scary. It overrode everything else. She shot one slug out of the Mossberg and turned down the fully automatic Colt AR-15.

The officers were happy to see that we realized that marksmanship is so hard, even an expert cant shoot a gun out of someones hand. I was happy to learn that if Cassandra somehow did get a gun, she could probably never hit me.

On the drive home, Cassandra said shed like to go to a shooting range again, this time with a female instructor and using only a handgun. When I asked if she was still considering keeping a gun in the house, which I am firmly against, she said, I dont want you to say in the story whether or not I have a gun in the house. Then, a second later, she added, Maybe I do have a gun in the house, and Im hiding it from you. And then: I have a gun in the house, Joel. Im telling you right now, I have a gun in the house.

After kicking off his campaign Thursday morning, Republican Steve Lonegan said a congressional race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., boils down to one point.

“I’m a conservative and he’s a liberal,” Lonegan said of his potential general election opponent in 2018. “That’s what the race comes down to.”

The former mayor of Bogota (Bergen County) announced his intention to challenge the first-term Democratic congressman at a kickoff event in Paramus before heading to Sussex County for a meet-and-greet at the Hampton Diner in the afternoon.

“Washington is in turmoil, and liberal Democrat Josh Gottheimer is part of the problem,” Lonegan said during his campaign announcement.

During a meeting with members of the New Jersey Herald editorial board, Lonegan said that he believed an “honest, conservative approach to government” that cuts the size and scope of government is what’s “best for promoting individual liberty.”

He touted his accomplishments as mayor of a borough that is “2 to 1 Democrat to Republican” where he cut taxes and the size of local government.

“Those governing principles that I brought to Bogota resonate in this district,” he said. “I know this district well … and it represents the real values of the country.”

Lonegan, 61, of Hackensack, said he believed that Gottheimer’s values are not representative of the district as a whole, which he characterized as “unique” due to the diversity of the population that includes everything from Wall Street commuters to rural farmers. He claimed that Gottheimer has been misrepresenting himself as a moderate Democrat.

“I’m not going to hide from the fact that I’m a proud conservative,” Lonegan said. “(Gottheimer is) attempting to portray himself as some sort of centrist, but the facts belie that.”

Gottheimer is co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a 43-congressional member group almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. One of his first major floor votes broke party ranks where he joined three other Democrats in favor of amending the Midnight Relief Rules Act. Just recently, Gottheimer was one of five House Democrats who voted in favor of a military spending bill that included funding for Republican pet projects, drawing ire from his own party and supporters for doing so.

A spokesperson for Gottheimer emailed a statement that read: “Josh is focused on working for the families of the Fifth District — working across the aisle to lower taxes and create jobs, repair our crumbling roads and bridges, stand by vets and first responders, and protect Social Security and Medicare, and our Jersey values.”

Lonegan said he is pro-Second Amendment, pro-life and advocates for religious liberty. He is also a supporter of term limits in Congress.

When it comes to the federal government’s role in education, Lonegan said he preferred state and local level control.

“My fundamental philosophy with education is (that it is) local,” he said. “It’s about a parent, a teacher and a child.”

Lonegan was the state chairman of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s bid for the presidency in 2016. He was among a handful of Republicans who were part of the “Free the Delegates” movement in the summer of 2016, which sought to deny President Donald Trump the party’s nomination at the national convention in Cleveland. Earlier this month, Lonegan attended a rally in support of Trump in Frankford.

He served as the New Jersey state director and senior policy analyst for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group founded by Charles and David Koch, from 2007 to 2013.

“I have spent my entire life working to protect taxpayers and will continue to do so,” he said in a press release announcing his campaign.

Lonegan is a familiar name in New Jersey politics. His three terms as mayor were followed by a string of unsuccessful bids for higher public office. He ran for New Jersey governor in 2005 and 2009, challenged Democrat Cory Booker for a U.S. Senate seat in a special election in 2013, and most recently fought a GOP primary battle against Tom MacArthur for a 3rd District House seat in 2014. He also ran for state Senate in 1997, losing to the late Democratic incumbent Byron Baer.

Lonegan said he’s learned a lot during those experiences that will aid him in 2018.

“I’ve never shied away from really tough races,” he said.

Lonegan may have a primary challenge ahead of him that has not yet completely materialized. On Thursday, Warren County Freeholder Jason Sarnoski said he is still “exploring” a 5th District run but is currently focusing on getting GOP candidates at the state level elected. Sarnoski said that Lonegan’s entry into the fray would have no impact on his decision.

“Steve Lonegan has run before and lost,” Sarnoski said. “He is a somewhat divisive figure and he’s proven he’s not what the voters want.”

The 39-year-old Republican has been a county freeholder since 2010 and said he would be proud to run on his record of cutting taxes and reducing spending in a county where 15 of 22 municipalities are in the 5th District.

The 5th Congressional District includes 19 of Sussex County’s municipalities in addition to parts of Bergen, Passaic and Warren counties.

Gottheimer raised more than $4 million on his way to defeating seven-term Republican Scott Garrett in November 2016. According to Federal Election Commission fundraising reports, the Bergen County Democrat had $1.4 million in his re-election fund as of June 30. Lonegan said he’s anticipating close to $600,000 in his campaign fund when he files on Sept. 1.

David Danzis can also be contacted on Facebook: ddanzisNJH, on Twitter: @ddanzisNJH, or by phone: 973-383-1274.

A prominent evangelical ministry has filed a federal lawsuit against the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), saying it defamed the Christian organization as an active hate group because it endorses the biblical view of homosexuality.

The clash marks the latest chapter in a growing feud between those who embrace historic monotheistic beliefs, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, and progressive activists who have begun targeting mainstream Christian groups that hold traditional beliefs about sex and other issues.

Officials of the D. James Kennedy Ministries, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., accuse the SPLC of deceptive practices, saying that it wrongly asserts that some organizations breed or fuel hate because of their religious positions on such things as same-sex marriage and other social issues.

Its completely disingenuous to tag D. James Kennedy Ministries as a hate group alongside the KKK and neo-Nazis, Kennedy Ministries spokesman John Rabe said to Fox News. We desire all people, with no exceptions, to receive the love of Christ and his forgiveness and healing. We unequivocally condemn violence, and we hate no one.

Its ridiculous for the SPLC to falsely tag evangelical Christian ministries as hate groups simply for upholding the 2,000-year-old Christian consensus on marriage and sexuality, Rabe said. Its nothing more than an attempt to bulldoze over those who disagree with them, and it has a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion in a nation built on that. We decided not to let their falsehoods stand.

Kennedy Ministries filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., where the SPLC is headquartered.

The SPLC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

SPLC critics say its original mission was a commendable one, setting out in 1971 to fight the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC went after several Klan leaders, driving them into bankruptcy after court losses.

But increasingly, especially since Donald Trumps victory in the presidential election, both liberals and conservatives say that SPLC has grown overzealous bringing down its huge and very high-profile hate-group hammer on not just people and organizations that actually encourage hate and violence against certain groups, but also on those who simply dont fall in line with liberal positions on hot-button social issues.

They deserve praise because they used the law to hurt the Klan — a lot, said Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank that monitors nonprofits. But as often happens in the charity world, it concocts new ways to keep donations flowing.

Hate is the issue here, Walter said. When you talk about hate groups, youre talking about a group that is a threat because of its violent tendencies and racism. If you go up to somebody on the street and ask What is a hate group? that is what they would take it to mean.

Its an outrageous lie that some mainstream Christian group is a threat in terms of violence and racism, Walter said.

In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, the Kennedy Ministries president wrote: These false and illegal characterizations have a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and on religious free speech for all people of faith. After having given the SPLC an opportunity to retract, we have undertaken this legal action, seeking a trial by a jury of our peers, to preserve our own rights under the law and to defend the religious free speech rights of all Americans.

Members of other religious groups including non-Christian groups — that embrace biblical views on sexuality are also feeling pressure from the SPLC.

In recent weeks, British Muslim activist Maajid Nawaz said on Bill Mahers television show that he was considering suing SPLC for putting him on its list of anti-Muslim extremists.

SPLC has said that Nawaz has been a supporter of intelligence-gathering efforts in the name of fighting terrorism that ensnare people who have not been proven a threat to national security.

Nawaz, a former Islamist who says that many liberals overlook the growth of jihadism, thinks the SPLC made him a target for violence.

We know what happens when you list heretics, Nawaz said. They end up dead.

Maher responded with dismay and said he would support a lawsuit against the SPLC.

Jim Renacci launched one of the most-virulent attacks of the Republican gubernatorial campaign Thursday in targeting Jon Husted.

TheU.S. House memberfrom Wadsworth posted a video on Twitter thatclaimed Husted has a “liberal record”while portrayingthe two-term secretary of state as dishonestand “not as conservative as he pretends to be.”

Renacci’s campaign said the video was in response to a Tweet by a pro-Husted super-PAC, Ohio Conservatives for a Change, that questioned the congressman’s support for drug education for children in Ohio schools.

In his video, Renacci says, “… Career politicians like Jon Husted are already desperately slinging mud at me. If I were him Id be scared too. … He tells people one thing in public and another in private, and has been desperately hoping no one would ever check under the hood and find out hes not the conservative he pretends to play on TV.”

Ohio Conservatives for Change spokesman Thomas Norris said the group’s anti-Renacci tweet was based on comments he made, apparently about Attorney General Mike DeWine, another GOP gubernatorial candidate in next year’s race,before a Highland County tea party group Monday.

Norris said a super-PAC tracker recorded Renacci as saying, One of my opponents talks about education, and educating more, and more, and more. You know what, they laugh. They say, ‘When we were in school, and the person would come and talk about drugs, wed start laughing and say weve already had those drugs, weve already done that, weve already been past that.’ So, in some ways, what they tell you we have to do is look at opportunities. Its not about education, its about opportunities.”

Renacci campaign spokesman James Slepian called the super-PAC’s take on his candidate’s words as “absurdly desperate.”

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The “they” referencesin Renacci’s statement in Highland County refers to his opioid epidemic advisory board that includes recovering addicts, Slepian said. “Jim was sharing that information and discussing the importance ensuring young people are aware of and have access toopportunities other than the world of drug addiction. He was clearly not saying that he opposes drug education in general.”

Husted supports educating school children about the dangers of drugs, said campaign spokesman Joshua Eck. Husted’s campaign is legally forbidden from collaborating with the super-PAC, which received a $1 million donation from Dayton-area billionaire Clayton Mathile.

Renacci also said in his video that Husted helped usher in Democrat President Barack Obama’s Common Core curriculum into Ohio schools. Eck said that Husted, a former House speaker and state senator, opposed Common Core and helped create the first statewide school choice scholarships. Husted, Eck said, has the “most conservative record of anyone running for governor.”

Bannon openly acknowledged his animus for the Party of Davos editorial positionsofThe Economist,referring tothem as the enemy of economic nationalism for their radical obsession with free trade at all costs.

He alsoaffirmed his loyalty to Trump and his desire to help him. Breitbart will never turn on [Trump], Bannon said, But we are never going to let him take a decision that hurts him.

Bannon acknowledged that in the White House he had influence, but outside at Breitbart he has power. He said he intends to use that power to rally the base and have [Trumps] back. The harder he pushes, the more we will be there for him.

The discussion soonturned to what Bannon sees as the inevitable civilizational struggle between the Judeo-Christian classical liberalism of the West which affirms human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and self-governance versus the mercantilist, Confucian system of an ascendant China.

From The Economist:

Among the particular opponents he has in his sights, said Mr Bannon, seated in a dining-room decorated with Christian iconography and political mementos, are congressional Republicans (Mitch McConnell, Im going to light him up), China (Lets go screw up One Belt One Road) and the elites in Silicon Valley and Wall Streettheyre a bunch of globalists who have forgotten their fellow Americans. Despite his departurevoluntarily, he insists, though his resignation is reported to have been demanded of himMr Bannon says he will never attack his former boss. Yet Breitbart will caution Mr Trump to stick to the populist nationalist course Mr Bannon charted.We will never turn on him. But we are never going to let him take a decision that hurts him.The website offered an early taste of this in its disparaging coverage of Mr Trumps flip-flop decision to send more American troops to Afghanistan, which was announced on August 21st and Mr Bannon strongly opposes (seearticle).

As Mr Trumps campaign chief (his third in two months, the campaign having been roiled by scandals) Mr Bannon urged him to redouble that effort [to campaign on as a populist economic nationalist taking on the politically correct establishment]. The American people understood his foibles and understood his character flaws and they didnt care, he says. The country was thirsting for change and [Barack] Obama didnt give them enough. I said, we are going for a nationalist message, we are going to go barbarian, and we will win.

For Mr Bannon, who went from a working-class Virginian family to careers in Wall Street and Hollywood, those agreements epitomised the folly of globalisation, which he considers disastrous for American workers and avoidable. He hardened this critique after returning to America from a spell in Hong Kong; China, whose gaming of WTO rules Mr Bannon considers tantamount to an economic war against America, remains at the heart of it. A zealous Catholic who believes in the inevitability of civilisational conflict, he considers Chinas growth to be an additional, overarching threat to America, which it must therefore dial back. I want the world to look back in 100 years and say, their mercantilist, Confucian system lost. The Judeo-Christian liberal West won.

The president has, if not fixed intellectual differences with Mr Bannon, different predilections, including his slavish regard for the military and business elites now stocking his cabinet, whom his former adviser derides. (What did the elites do? asks Mr Bannon. These are the guys who gave us happy talk on Iraq, who let China into the WTO and said it would sign up to the rules-based order.) When some of Mr Bannons early schemes failedincluding the shabbily planned travel ban, now snarled up in the courtsMr Trump turned increasingly to his more conventional advisers, including Mr Kushner and Mr McMaster. On trade and security in particular, they have edged him towards the mainstream. Whereas Mr Bannon urged the president to withdraw from NAFTA and Afghanistan, for example, he has launched a modest-looking review of the former and will send more troops to the latter. Increasingly isolated, Mr Bannons departure from the White House was predicted.

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